Out of the past: Feb. 2

2000

A local committee is cruising ahead with efforts to develop a coordinated, public transportation system to serve Cape Girardeau County; the County Commission appointed the five-member committee last fall to explore suggestions made by a previous ad hoc transportation committee; it recommended last March that the commission establish a transit authority to coordinate transportation services for the public.

Cape Girardeau will receive a $296,150 from the Missouri Department of Transportation for the second phase of the Lexington Trace of Cape LaCroix Trail; the project calls for a 4-foot-wide concrete walkway within the right of way along Lexington Avenue, Sprigg and Bertling streets as an extension of the first phase of Lexington Trace.

1975

Fifteen pews, which had stood in the former Grace United Methodist Church at 1 S. Sprigg St. and later provided seating for Cape Girardeau Municipal Court at what became the police headquarters, have found their way back to their original purpose in a house of worship; the pews have been given by the city to St. Matthew’s Missionary Baptist Church for the new building it has constructed at 418 Elm St.; the congregation’s former church in South Cape Girardeau was destroyed in the 1973 Mississippi River flood.

Cape Beauty Supply, which had been at 284 Christine, will open tomorrow in a new location at 636 Good Hope St., which was formerly occupied by Schade’s Men’’s Store.

1950

Still reeling from the first onslaught, Cape Girardeau remains in the grip of an ice storm that continues to keep nearly half of the town without electric power, knocked out 1,400 telephones, closed all schools and hampered communications with the outside world; as of this morning, there has been no improvement in the situation; power and telephone lines go down as rapidly as they are put up, when trees and tree limbs continue to fall under the weight of the ice.

The battle of the Southeast Missouri Telephone Co., throughout the district to restore its ice-shattered service is bolstered by the arrival of 18 outside crews from St. Louis County and Springfield, sent here by Southwestern Bell Telephone Co.; the crews will augment the 68 now working to restore severed communication, which has put an estimated 6,350 telephones in the storm-stricken area out of commission.

1925

Cape Girardeau city officials take steps to prevent any illegal voting in tomorrow’s special elections, when citizens will ballot to determine if the city limits are to be extended; police will be stationed at each of the five polling places in the city throughout the day; judges have also been instruct to question each voter regarding his residence; if there is any doubt regarding where a voter lives, he will be forced to make affidavits; under the law, only residents of the city of Cape Girardeau proper, who are 21 years of age, have been residents here 60 years and of the state one year are eligible to vote.

Lt. Cmdr. John Philip Sousa, the world’s most celebrated band leader, has pledged the Southeast Missourian newspaper to bring his band to Cape Girardeau for concerts next year, Feb. 10, 1926.

Southeast Missourian librarian Sharon Sanders compiles the information for the daily Out of the Past column. She also writes a weekend column called “From the Morgue” that showcases interesting historical stories from the newspaper.